The area’s most popular restaurant owners explain how to succeed in the area

Mike Rotunda remembers the day he threw over one of the Batdorf’s chairs.

The three Rotunda brothers had only grilling and pizza shop experience to draw on when they purchased the Batdorf at 245 W. Main St. in Annville.

“Looking back on it, I had no idea what we were getting into,” Rotunda said. “I think we went, like, six months, maybe paying ourselves $500 the entire month. At that point, all of us were behind on bills, car payments, everything, basically just having mental stress breakdowns all the time.”

That was why he threw the chair. He credits his brothers for having the compassion and tough love to tell him to stay focused on the job.

Twelve years later, the Batdorf has become a money-making restaurant – but success stories like the Rotundas are the exception rather than the rule. With Lebanon’s culture of tight wallets, unadventurous tastes, and a possibly saturated market, keeping a restaurant profitable is an uphill climb.

“A lot of food, and cheap”

A passionate young chef, Robert Corle got his first taste of the Lebanon market in the early 1990s working at a popular local eatery. He overhauled the menu, eliminating popular but crude appetizers like deep-fried scallops wrapped in bacon and smothered in barbeque sauce.

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Michael Rotunda, one of the owners of the Batdorf Restaurant in Annville.(Photo: Jeremy Long, Jeremy Long, Lebanon Daily News)

“It didn’t take long for people to rear their heads,” he said.

While he gained some new customers, more complained that if they wanted Hotel Hershey food, they would go to the Hotel Hershey. The restaurant’s owner went back to his old menu, and Corle quit.

When he opened the LCCTC’s restaurant to the public, duck and lamb didn’t fly. On the other hand, their annual “Fabulous 50s” week – in which they create an ambiance of a 50s diner and serve diner food – sells out the 40-60 seats available every day.

How Trattoria Fratelli succeeds

In some ways, upscale Italian restaurant Trattoria Fratelli stands out like a sore thumb on Lebanon’s north side. Owner Kevin Brown said people demand to know how he could have an Italian menu without a steak sandwich.

He frequently rotates his menu and serves uncommon delicacies like sweetbreads at a high level of quality, attracting people from outside the area, Corle said. More than half of his customers come from at least 30 minutes away, Brown said.

So, why open a restaurant?

First, the odds aren’t as bad as some people say. An oft-stated statistic – that 90 percent of restaurants close during their first year – is probably too gloomy.

If that were true, restaurants as a whole would be rapidly disappearing from the American landscape, a Cornell University study found – something that clearly isn’t happening.

Only about 26 percent fail in the first year, while 50 percent fail within three years, Worden said. Those odds are still worse than many other types of small businesses.

Still, restaurant owners don’t sugarcoat the job: it’s always a risk, and it’s a lot of work even when successful.

Pat Riley started the Downtown Lounge in 1979.(Photo: Daniel Walmer)

Arnold does it because he loves working for himself, and didn’t like the corporate world. Brown grew up in a culinary family and always wanted to own a restaurant someday.

Pat Riley carefully weighed the pros and cons before starting the Downtown Lounge in 1979, but he still had a sense of regret one week into the job. On Saturday morning, while mopping the floor, he realized he had worked at least 80 hours that week.

“I sat down and I said, what the hell did I do?” Riley said.

He planned to keep the business for five years and then sell, but the recession of the early 1980s prevented that. He only turned over the day-to-day management of the Downtown Lounge to new leadership in the last year.

Despite the challenges, experts said owning a restaurant can be a profitable venture if all the pieces come together.

Even when that happens, Rotunda warned, you probably shouldn’t celebrate as much as he and his brothers did.

“When you start making money, open up a retirement account or something. Don’t do spend it on $200 bar tabs,” he said.